If you travel much in Asia, odds are you’ve picked up a Korean Air Skypass membership at some point. Korean Air is one of the better Asian airlines, and their Skypass Club includes a wide variety of team members including Aeroflot, Aerolineas Argentinas, Aeromexico, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines, Saudia Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, TAROM Romanian Air Transport, Vietnam Airlines, and Xiamen Airlines.

Unfortunately, Korea seems to often use very poor website systems (it’s not just Korean Air), forming websites hard to maneuver around or understand. They’ve also updated and made some changes that makes it hard to understand the mileage claim process. So here are some tips:

Try to get input your number during the ordering process if possible — it’s easiest if Korean Air does the check-in themselves and you don’t need to do anything.

If you fly with an airline OTHER than Korean Air – you’ll need to go through the mileage claim process to carry the miles over. I almost always travel China Southern, so I’m doing this a lot.

SAVE YOUR BOARDING PASS AND E-TICKET! I cannot emphasize this enough. Part of the retro-active process may involve airlines who require additional verification processes (e.g. China Southern) and the Korean Air website glitches a lot, leaving you to input information manually. But that requires you to upload images of your boarding pass and e-ticket. So DON’T LOSE THEM!

Figure out your CLASS ticket. Some boarding passes or tickets will say – some won’t. It dictates the % of your mileage that you can claim, so they sometimes require that you enter that information.

Flights are only valid for 1 year. I lost about 3 years of monthly international flights and thousands of dollars worth of miles because I didn’t realize they would expire (kill me now). Don’t make my mistake!

F) Some flights require more in-depth detailed data entry. For example: China Southern. . . Small tip – if the website is not working properly for automatic companies (like China Eastern), you can try adding it this way instead. To be honest, this website is a pain in the neck to use.

G) After you have submitted your information, hit confirm and it’ll begin processing! That’s it. . . you may have your miles added automatically, or you may need to wait for them to confirm. But it should go through properly.

This one was SERIOUSLY NOT GOOD!

Date:

Airline:

Plane:

Pre-flight Interactions:

This is where everything went VERY wrong on the part of American Airlines. I ordered the tickets via CheapTickets.com, so the process was fairly simple. They didn’t show up on the AA list before my flight though, so I had to have the email confirmation in hand.

MAJOR PROBLEM:

I was coming in from Seoul, South Korea and originally planned a three hour changeover from Korean Air international to a domestic American Airlines flight at LAX. When the Korean Air flight had to go north to avoid a pretty large storm, it changed my changeover window to 1.5 hours.

Still, according to the airline website, you need to arrive about 1-1.5 hours ahead of time for a domestic flight anyway, so I wasn’t actually late at all. Since AA had access to my itinerary and the flight records, they would have known that my planed would arrive in time. Figuring everything was okay, I showed up at the check-in counter only to be told I’m not on the flight list. You can imagine the trauma that brought forth–my bags were scheduled to be put on the plane, my family was waiting on the other end for me to arrive, and suddenly I’m not there.

Immediately I start asking questions; I had the confirmation number, I had the itinerary, I was on top of things. So what the heck went wrong? I was shuffled off to a customer service kiosk,fwhere I waited in line 10 minutes trying to explain to VERY RUDE employees that I was now in a hurry. They told me to just “wait my turn young lady” (very condescending btw), and then informed me that I had been deleted from the system. It wasn’t an accident at all–AA deleted me on purpose. Unable to answer my questions or resolve the issue, they sent me across the building to another kiosk with less than 45 minutes remaining before my plane left. After another 10 minute wait, I’m told that since my flight was late, they had removed me from the roster. LATE?!?!?! Since when?!?!? I had a whole hour (as recommended by their directions) before I was supposed to leave on the AA plane! The only reason I was late now is because someone took me off the roster! I was FURIOUS with them; they had no right to give away my seat when I showed up on time according to their own guidelines. Finally, they said they thought they might be able to slide me in last minute, but I’d have to run and I wouldn’t get the seat I’d chosen. I was left with 20 minutes to get through security and run to the gate. No apologies were offered, no discount, nothing to make up for the stress. I arrived as the last people got on. While I made it onto the flight, this is one of the worst examples of service I have seen with an airline.

First/Business Class customers get 3 free checked bags all the time, but it differs for economy depending on your destination. You can find all the rules here, but generally you get a personal item (I always make it a backpack because it counts as a purse but is bigger) and a carry-on. If you want a checked bag, they cost around $30 each for the first 2. I prefer airlines with at least 1 free checked bag.

Boarding:

Yet again of the bad. I arrived at the desk rushing up to ask if I had been added or not, and was yelled at because “you should have been here earlier, we’re boarding now, so you need to hurry up if you want to board” (not the most polite response I’ve ever gotten). Realizing that if I wasn’t on the flight, my bags might not be on the flight I attempted to ask about my luggage. Their response “Ma’am you need to get in line now.” Finally, I was obviously upset and a lovely cleaner woman stopped and asked if I was okay. After explaining my problem, she patted me on the shoulder and hurried off to stop the pilot walking by. She brought him over and he informed me that it should be okay (Thank you both if you read this; you saved me a great deal of grief).

In Flight:

I’ve yet to be impressed with AA flight attendants–their concept of customer service is one of the worst I’ve experienced. Food is horrid and there is little of it; drinks are hard to come by. There are few amenities, and the only entertainment was a tiny tv at the front that you couldn’t really see and the microphones were broken. Trying to sleep didn’t work because the flight was cramped; and I ended up crushed in the middle when I wanted an aisle seat. We still arrived late.

Only positive–for the first time since I’ve been flying with them, the AA plane had a fairly smooth ride.

Luggage Retrieval:

My luggage wasn’t where I was told, and no one was available to tell us where to go. I was happy though to find out it arrived on the plane.

Overall Conclusions

HORRIBLE. This airline was extremely and unnecessarily problematic due to bad business practice on the part of American Airlines. Given the significant issue over my retracted ticket, I would have expected at the least helpful kindness and patience from their staff. That was not forthcoming. I was also expected some kind of apology or reparations for my aggravation, and they acted like I was the problem and that I should be grateful they were working with me to fix it.

For Comparison’s sake, I once arrived at a Korean Air flight check-in fifteen minutes before boarding. They rushed me through check-in, grabbed my bags, and hurried me through to my flight with 2 minutes to spare. Plus, they were exceedingly polite in the process.AA FAILED. I will avoid them in the future.

Date:

Airline:

Plane(s):

Pre-flight Interactions:

I prefer ordering Korean Air tickets via Orbitz or other online systems because their website is fairly complicated. One nice element is that it comes in a multitude of languages–English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, etc. It isn’t always so difficult to look up flights, but it can be difficult to compare them via their home site. There isn’t a lot of explanation as to what exactly their “Skypass” does for you, although I’ve signed up since the beginning. As far as I can tell, it just gets me through the check-in a little easier because I can have everything easily accessible online. They say that you can pre-check in via the web and just use their machine at the airport, but it has always failed for me. I might be using it wrong or not qualifying, but the instructions are confusing. It helps if you have ticket in hand, along with your itinerary, and your passport. That is enough for them to get started.

However, the personnel are amazing at their jobs. I can’t say that I have ever had a single complaint with them. Their English is superb, they get me through the lines quickly and efficiently, they have people standing around waiting to answer questions, and they are charming at it. They seem to have an unending line of patience because I can honestly say I’ve never seen the less than lovely. For all that I stumbled through on my first couple flights, they were fabulous. They always verified that I knew what I was doing and where to go, they actively came around the counter and led me to where I needed to go next, and they even worked with me the day I was late for the flight check-in. I can’t speak highly enough of their service.

The deal is that if you are flying internationally (and I often am), all airlines must honor the baggage requirements/allowance of the airline with the longest flight (if tickets are all bought together–not separately). I always try to get Korean Air’s baggage allowance if traveling.

First/Business Class always get 3 free checked bags, but it differs for Prestige and Economy depending on the destination. You can find all the rules here under At the Airport–>Baggage. Generally, Prestige gets 2 bags, while Economy gets 2 bags for to/from America and 1 for anywhere else. You also get a personal item (I always make it a backpack because it counts as a purse but is bigger) and a carry-on. Small tip, if you are stopping in other countries during our trip, buy all the tickets at the same time as you purchase your flight back/from the US. It gets you the 2 bags instead of 1.

Boarding:

Amazing. There are always 2-3 people at the gate waiting to answer questions and handle problems. They are extremely efficient at the process, working with children and the elderly first, then everyone else. Everyone is divided into groups and you just wait your turn, making the lines more manageable. The flight attendants greet you at the door, check your ticket, and direct you to your seat. If you need help (have kids, strollers, elderly, etc.) one of them will come with you to help you settle in. They never complain about weirdly shaped baggage or oversized items; they simply gather them all up to be dealt with quietly. Your seat already has the amenities there including a blanket, pillow, slippers, and water bottle. They are eternally polite in getting everyone situated, it’s a smooth process that eases both adults and children.

In Flight:

The best part about Korean Air is their customer service and amenities. Domestic is a little rougher because you don’t get the televisions or as many amenities, but I really appreciate having the water bottle already in hand. They arrive quickly when the button is pressed, and return promptly with your requested items. I once watched a flight attendants rock and walk a screaming baby for nearly an hour while the parents tried to sooth their other kids, and she acted like it was no big deal. They serve drinks and food to First Class first of course, but they move quickly and you don’t have to wait too long. The food is generally amazing (cakes, puddings, salads, curry, baked chicken, etc.), and it is actually a full meal. They offer soda, wine, water, juice, milk, etc. free generally, and usually come buy with snacks a couple of times. The seats are pretty well spaced with lots of leg room so I never feel crunched up (Domestic less so, but still better than AA), and they are comfy too.

By far the best part is the tv screens each chair has for international flights. They offer music (International, Korean, American, Country, radio, etc.), Television shows (European, American, Kdramas, comedies), Movies (dozens of films are always there including tons of kids films), tourism information, flight information, maps, even Video Games. Kids are entertained for hours, and I rarely see any making a big fuss on these flights. They can even compete together in the video games since the tvs connect for them. Some have plug-ins for USB cables too, which is nice if you have an I-pod or laptop.

Then there is of course the flying. I have run into some very late flights with Korean Air, but we were avoid a big storm hitting Korea and China so it couldn’t be helped. They are very careful about safety measure, demonstrating the procedures in case of emergency. They always alert you when the seat belt lights come on and explain the issue. Generally there is also an apology. They have been turbulent but not scary. It’s nice that the pilot comes out and thanks you as you walk off the plane too.

Luggage Retrieval:

This usually goes pretty well. I had one flight where my luggage wasn’t where they told me, but I’m not sure whose fault that was. My suitcases ended up in first class, so I had to hunt to find them, and then they changed the location of retrieval which confused things. But my suitcases always made it back, and I’ve never had anything break.

Overall Conclusions

I attempt to always get Korean Air if possible. To be honest, customer service is one of the most important things to me when choosing an airline; flying is stressful enough without having to deal with grouchy workers. So, I particularly appreciate their customer service and amenities. It helps that they sent me up to Business Class once after they had an opening and I slept at their feet the whole night before. I was also touched by the flight attendants relating to me personally. I once lost my boarding pass and the woman rushed all over helping me look and figuring out the process of what to do. I spent several minutes talking to one flight attendant as we waited buckled in for take-off (storm delays) with him describing everything I should see, talking about where I was from, etc. He then caught back up and wished me a good trip when we were leaving. That’s just how kind they are. Flying Domestic is less fun because the planes are more cramped, older, and offer less entertainment, but it is still as nice as I’ve found elsewhere.

The only negatives I see with Korean Air–They are almost always more expensive and I don’t understand enough about the Skypass for it to be doing me any good. Also, my miles are going to expire before I reach the upgrade, and I’m within reach if I could just afford one more international flight 😦